72 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



during the months of December, January, and February the sum- 

 mit may be covered with sleet or snow for a day or two at a time. 



Mount Tamalpais is therefore a point of great interest to the 

 sight-seer, the tourist, and the student of Nature. 



Modes of reaching the Summit. — For many years a trail has 

 existed from Mill Valley to the summit, and another from Ross 



View of Summit from a Point Sixteen Hundred Feet above Tide. 



Valley, both practicable for pack mules. Later the Ross Valley 

 trail was improved so as to be practicable for light vehicles, but 

 these did not answer the needs of the increasing travel, and in 

 1895 the Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway Com- 

 pany was organized. The purpose of this company was bold — to 

 construct a traction railroad from tide level to the summit of a 

 peak not two miles off and nearly half a mile high appeared vis- 

 ionary, if not impossible, to many. But with persevering skill a 

 road was located upon a line 8.19 miles long, having an average 

 grade of five and a half per cent and maximum grades of seven 

 per cent, and overcoming 2,353 feet elevation in this distance. 

 Four and nine tenths miles are curved, the minimum radius being 

 seventy feet. Owing to the rough and ravine-cut topography, 

 twenty-five trestles were necessary, the curvature and grade being 

 maintained over these. 



In order to reduce the cost of grading and to develop suffi- 

 cient length to overcome the elevation, the grade contour was 

 followed as closely as possible. The very short radius employed 



